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GoDaddy "WordPress" Review (2018) — Hosting Rating & Install Guide

Sean Garrity, 5/23/18

GoDaddy and WordPress are two of the most recognized names in the hosting and web development community. For decades, GoDaddy has been the most popular place to register domains and today has more than 71 million of them under its purview. GoDaddy’s also a big player in the hosting game with more than 5 million sites calling it home. Not to be outdone, the giant of web building software, WordPress, has become a household name and is now said to power more than 27% of sites on the web.

These numbers are nothing to sneeze at. With this type of popularity, GoDaddy and WordPress must be doing something right. And the good news is the two can be used in tandem. Many site owners are enjoying the benefits of the versatility and speed that come with combining powerful WordPress software and GoDaddy’s managed hosting services. Let’s take a look at how the two stack up.

GoDaddy WordPress Hosting Review: 4.7 Rating

GoDaddy’s hosting plans offer some of the industry’s lowest prices while providing fast load times and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Starting at only $1.00 per month, site owners get one website, 100GB of storage, unmetered bandwidth, free Microsoft Office 365 business email for a year, site backup and restore, and a free domain name.

Moving up just a few dollars from GoDaddy’s Economy tier, users enjoy all the features just mentioned with the addition of many more. With GoDaddy’s Ultimate plan, site owners get unlimited websites and storage, 2X processing power and memory, premium DNS, and a one-year SSL certificate. The SSL certificate, costs $70 a year and will help keep your site secure while simultaneously optimizing your rankings in organic search.

Whichever hosting plan you choose with GoDaddy, you’ll be given access to around-the-clock security monitoring and DDoS protection to guard against attacks. If your domain is registered with GoDaddy, domain setup is only one click away. GoDaddy also grants free access to more than 125 applications, one of which is WordPress, so it’s easy for site owners to combine the quick speed and high availability offered by GoDaddy with the flexibility WordPress allows.

Our Expert's GoDaddy Review

Upon first getting started with GoDaddy, customers who sign up for an annual plan receive a free domain name and the power to control their hosting via cPanel or Plesk control panels. From either of... read more +See full review »

Upon first getting started with GoDaddy, customers who sign up for an annual plan receive a free domain name and the power to control their hosting via cPanel or Plesk control panels. From either of these interfaces, you can quickly install and set up the WordPress environment at no additional cost. Even if you don't sign up for a 12-month GoDaddy plan, they're still known as the World's #1 Domain Name Registrar, so they're a reputable choice for hosting your domain.

GoDaddy WordPress plans feature managed services, which means you don't have to worry about tedious details of maintaining the server on which your site is hosted (e.g., security patches and bug fixes). While you're busy adding content, photos, or products to your WordPress site, GoDaddy ensures that your web pages are loading quickly and hackers are staying away. GoDaddy offers award-winning security practices, including DDoS protection, 24/7 server monitoring, and the peace of mind in knowing that experts are not only watching your server but they're keeping an eye on the activity of other users sharing your server.

Folks seeking a WordPress website are in need of the WordPress install itself, the domain at which to host the site, and as many easy-to-use features for managing the WordPress site as possible. GoDaddy offers all of the above: the 1-click install, domain, email, security monitoring, and hosting management power via cPanel. Especially for the low, low cost, they're a fine choice for WordPress hosting.

GoDaddy Managed WordPress Review: 4.7 Rating

GoDaddy has built a platform specifically for WordPress with the goal of boosting the speed, availability, and security of its customers’ websites. As noted, managed WordPress hosting is included at no cost with GoDaddy’s packages. However, those employing WordPress gain access to a ton of features.

Depending on the hosting tier you choose and the nature of your project, you can welcome between 25,000 and 800,000 visitors to your site each month. As you move up the pricing tiers, other features become available, including SEO plugins, malware scan and removal, and one-click staging areas.

With WordPress managed hosting, GoDaddy takes care of patches and DDoS so users can focus on creating their sites.

With GoDaddy’s managed WordPress service, site owners don’t have to worry about updating the software’s core or installing patches for security. This is all done automatically. GoDaddy’s goal in offering managed WordPress hosting is to allow customers to focus on presenting effective and compelling sites to their audiences. And, with the thousands of free themes and plugins available for WordPress, GoDaddy is accomplishing this goal.

GoDaddy Website Builder vs. WordPress

GoDaddy offers its own website builder platform GoCentral Website Builder. The tool has some nice positive points and a few cons. Here, we’ll see how GoDaddy’s platform compares with the legacy WordPress platform.

GoCentral offers numerous industry-specific themes site owners can employ to create professional-grade sites that will impress visitors. The platform also offers a vast library of Getty photography users can source to illustrate their sites. Many site owners employ a marriage of templates and stock and personal photography to customize their sites and tailor content blocks according to how they want their messaging displayed.

The user interface is intuitive and simple to use — so simple, in fact, that websites can be created and updated directly from a mobile device. By swiping and dropping in images and accessing color palettes, users can design unique sites from anywhere.

While both WordPress (L) and GoCentral (R) offer beautiful themes, WordPress’s flexibility and price give it an edge.

For merchants, GoCentral also offers an online storefront where site owners can display up to 1,500 products and accept numerous payment types. Combined with SEO functionalities and automated Facebook updates, the site builder can be an effective way to get your brand noticed.

There are some cons with GoCentral Website Builder, however, that might catapult WordPress’s CMS into the lead. While GoCentral’s drag-and-drop environment might at first appear to be a great starting place for a beginner, it doesn’t offer the same flexibility as WordPress’s CMS. WordPress also offers templates and design tools just as effective and intuitive as those from GoCentral but with one major difference — you can turn your website into anything you want it to be.

Thousands of plugins have been built for WordPress that enable complete customization of sites, even if you have limited coding knowledge. So, if you’re just looking to blog or if you want a comprehensive, branded eCommerce site, you can create it in WordPress.

Then there’s price to consider. GoDaddy includes managed WordPress hosting in its Basic plan. However, it will cost a few dollars more each month if you opt for GoCentral.

GoDaddy’s one-click WordPress installation is actually two or three clicks, but your fingers should be able to handle the exercise. The process is incredibly simple.

Once you’ve navigated to the GoDaddy website, log in and click My Products on the GoDaddy dashboard. Once on the products list page, click Manage in the Web Hosting field. You’ll then be directed to a page listing all your registered domains.

Below your domain name(s), click the Manage button. This will open cPanel — the aptly named control panel that will allow management of your hosting account.

Once in cPanel, you’ll find a Web Applications tab. Select WordPress under this tab. You’ll then find yourself on the Installatron installer page.

On the right-hand side of the screen, click the Install This Application button.

Step 3: Follow the On-Screen Prompts to Complete Installation

You’re almost done! Installatron will guide you the rest of the way to install WordPress. Here, you’ll be able to check if the domain on which you want WordPress installed is correct, change administration information, such as usernames and passwords, and set up subdomains.

No sweat, right? The process is simple, and, if you have any issues, GoDaddy support is just a message away.

Once You’re Set Up With GoDaddy, WordPress Themes Simplify Design

No matter if you’re new to web development and have never written a line of code in your life or whether you’re a seasoned professional developer, WordPress themes allow for simple website design with endless opportunities for customization.

Newbies love WordPress themes because they are able to get professional-grade sites up in minutes without needing to code. Text and images can be dropped in with just a few clicks. Pros employ WordPress themes as a foundation on which to build fully custom sites quickly for multiple clients, saving development time and expanding revenue opportunities.

From eCommerce to photography and blogging sites, WordPress has templates built for any site style and industry.

WordPress offers templates for just about any type of website. Whether you’re setting up shop as an eCommerce merchant or starting a food blog, you’re sure to find a match among the thousands of themes available on the platform.

WordPress themes, like Excellent, are multipurpose and can be used by merchants to highlight products in online storefronts or by bloggers to broadcast their ideas to the world. Photography templates, such as Verity and Portfolio Lite, offer stunning galleries to showcase work.

GoDaddy and WordPress — Two Web Icons, But Are They For You?

Marrying a web-building platform powering more than 27% of the internet and a host that runs upward of 5 million sites can’t be a bad match. The pair ranks high on our meter — rated 4.7/5 by our experts.

Sean Garrity is a Managing Editor at HostingAdvice with more than 10 years of experience researching, writing, and editing for numerous industry-specific trade publications. At HostingAdvice, Sean is charged with orchestrating the site’s content production, overseeing a team of writers, and ensuring the quality of feature and how-to articles. His goal is to keep organizations and entrepreneurs informed on the latest trends and technologies that can help them streamline operations and thrive online. When he isn’t wrapped up in discussions with experts, you can find Sean in front of his monitor, looking for what’s coming next in the fast-changing tech landscape.

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